P.L. 480 Title II Food Assistance
USAID continues to support U.S. national interests with P.L. 480 Title II food assistance by addressing food insecurity that fuels political instability and environmental degradation. With nearly 800 million food insecure people in the world, reducing the number is both a humanitarian concern and a strategic goal. P.L. 480 Title II, administered by USAID's Office of Food for Peace (FFP), is a people-to-people program, from the people of the United States to people who do not have access to sufficient food to meet their needs for healthy and productive lives. P.L. 480 Title II contributes directly to USAID's ability to provide humanitarian relief, implement programs that address the root causes of fragility, and promote transformational development.
U.S. Government support for overseas food aid was formalized in the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, also known as P.L. 480. Title II of P.L. 480 is a donation program used for both emergency and developmental assistance. The basic legislation, which has been modified over time, establishes the U.S. policy for using abundant U.S. agricultural resources and food processing capabilities to enhance food security in the developing world through the provision of culturally acceptable nutritious food commodities. In the 50 years since its inception, P.L. 480 Title II funding has provided more than 106 million metric tons of American food at a cost of about $33 billion to more than 150 countries. Almost 3.4 billion people at risk of hunger and malnutrition have directly benefited from receiving this assistance. Many of the food insecure live in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Chronic poverty, that is the unrelenting lack of economic opportunity either to produce adequate amounts of food or to exchange labor for income needed to purchase food in adequate amounts, is the chief cause of food insecurity, and its cost is enormous. The persistence of chronic hunger, malnutrition and threat of famine is simply unacceptable.
In FY 2005, the FFP Office programmed $1.6 billion and 2.7 million metric tons in food assistance. Several P.L. 480 Title II programs are cited here as examples of how this funding plays an important role in advancing U.S. national interests.
In Asia, the sheer magnitude of the earthquake and resulting tsunami in December 2004 both challenged and demonstrated USAID's ability to provide emergency relief on a massive scale. With an estimated 300,000 people in eight countries dead or missing, and millions of homes and livelihoods destroyed, tsunami relief amounted to a monumental task. Due to program flexibility and positioning commodities in the region in advance of a crisis (known as prepositioning), however, P.L. 480 Title II commodities were some of the first to reach beneficiaries in the region.
In Sri Lanka, 9,500 metric tons (MT) of commodities in Colombo en route for prepositioning in Dubai were redirected toward relief activities, with a response time of a mere 48 hours. In Indonesia as well, prepositioned commodities and healthy pipelines resulted in similar success, with 3,000 MTs of rice arriving in just 24 hours. USAID Washington officers in the field, in tandem with a strong regional response including USAID missions in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and Thailand, helped ensure program success in coordinating the numerous activities and actors involved. Over the course of nine months, 11,220 MTs valued at approximately $12.2 million were directed toward the disaster.
USAID with P.L. 480 Title II funding played a leading role in the prevention of widespread starvation and famine in Darfur, Sudan. In 2005, USAID was by far the biggest contributor of food assistance to Darfur, providing over 376,000 MT valued at approximately $324 million - approximately 85% of all food received by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) for the Darfur response. USAID also undertook a number of extraordinary measures to ensure the continued supply of food to vulnerable populations in Darfur, including the diversion of 8,450 MT of commodities on the high seas to prevent WFP from having to shift to half rations during the critical hunger gap in July and August. The success of these efforts was proven by a recent inter-agency nutritional survey, which found that malnutrition rates in Darfur had dropped below emergency levels despite continued insecurity and population displacement.
Other emergencies also received USAID's attention with P.L. 480 Title II funding in FY 2005. In South Asia, 11,500 MT of commodities were distributed to almost eight million citizens in Bangladesh, as the country struggled to recover from one of the worst floods in its history. In Latin America and the Caribbean, a series of natural disasters and civil unrest continued to pose problems. In Haiti, USAID programmed 3,900 MT to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Jeanne, and to address the country's continuing civil strife. Assistance was also provided in Iraq and Afghanistan, where 127,420 MT of commodities were used to promote transformational development, to the benefit of 7.3 million people.
Compounding pervasive chronic food insecurity, much of Southern Africa - including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Zambia - suffered from drought and crop failure in late FY 2005, demanding a strong regional response. Two of USAID's partners were operating in the region, and by building on these existing ongoing programs, networks and commodities, USAID was able to transition quickly to relief activities and maintain an adequate response until additional commodities arrived. The ability to access prepositioned stocks in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was also key to the successful response that distributed a total of 175,000 MT of commodities by year's end.
Sierra Leone's P.L. 480 Title II multi-year Consortium for Rehabilitation and Development (CORAD) continues to exceed targets for restoring livelihoods for rural households in some of the most badly affected parts of the country. Much of its success can be attributed to its focus on the country's transformational development programs, including long-term food security interventions. To provide for sustainable improvements in health, CORAD re-established or strengthened more than 200 village development committees with health subcommittees, 75% of whom have developed action plans to address health-related problems and capitalize on opportunities existing in their villages.
Despite security constraints in southern and southeastern Afghanistan, WFP continued to make progress in restoring the livelihoods and household food security of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). Using 44,800 MT of P.L. 480 Title II commodities, and a mixture of complementary feeding and food-for-work activities, WFP was able to provide both a safety net for the extremely vulnerable, and a recovery component to enable people to move from recovery to development. In all, over 5.5 million Afghanis benefited from these activities, including 250,000 IDPs and 28,500 malnourished children.
In FY 2005, USAID's funding level for P.L. 480 Title II was $1,425.3 million. In FY 2006, $1,138.5 million has been appropriated and the request level for FY 2007 is $1,218.5 million. For a complete listing of P.L. 480 Title II assistance funding and tonnage by region and country for FY 2004 through FY 2007, see the P.L. 480 Title II tables in the Summary Tables volume of this Congressional Budget Justification.
As part of the President's FY 2007 Budget, the Administration is requesting that the Administrator of USAID be granted authority to use up to 25% of appropriated Title II funds for the local or regional purchase and distribution of food to assist people threatened by a food security crisis. The ability to use a portion of Title II for local and regional purchase will allow the United States to move with greater speed and flexibility to prevent famine. Such speed is sometimes necessary when an emergency occurs with little notice (e.g., a natural disaster or an outbreak of fighting), food deliveries are unexpectedly interrupted (e.g., a pipeline break), or a cease fire allows rapid access to populations in need. Our U.S.-grown food will continue to play the primary role in meeting global needs. USAID plans to use local and regional purchases judiciously where the speed of the arrival of food aid is essential. U.S. commodities would continue to be used for multi-year development-oriented programs, for which needs are known far in advance. When an emergency is foreseen or occurs, we would seek to procure and ship U.S. commodities in most cases. If the commodities could not arrive in time, we would anticipate pursuing local and regional purchase if commodities could be procured locally or regionally.
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